19 April 2012  The United Nations agency tasked with promoting industrial development and China today signed an agreement to expand cooperation in the field of multilateral environmental conventions and other areas of mutual interest.

The Director-General of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Kandeh K. Yumkella, and the acting Director-General of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Office at China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, Liang Chen, signed the letter of intent to strengthen cooperation on the implementation of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, among other conventions.

In addition, the agreement aims to enhance cooperation on the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants; the forthcoming Mercury Convention; climate change mitigation; and on new programmes to reinforce South-South cooperation in environmental protection.

Mr. Yumkella also announced that UNIDO planned to boost efforts to advance South-South cooperation.

“In recent years, UNIDO’s support to China has been overwhelmingly in the environmental field,” he said. “UNIDO can help diffuse China’s green solutions in the BRICS countries [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] and other countries of the South, with a focus on clean technology and not just renewable energy,” he added.

Since 1979, UNIDO has implemented 377 projects in China, with a combined budget of $297 million.